Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

GORKI, March 14. /TASS/. Sooner or later Russia will lift its counter measures imposed as a response to the Western sanctions but it will be done only after external pressure is gone, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

"They [our counter measure] will come to an end sooner or later. It is absolutely clear. But, naturally, we will keep them in place as long as external pressure is in place. There should be no vain hopes on that matter," he said at a meeting with his deputies.

"If they extend anything [Western anti-Russian sanctions], they will have a response to such extension," he underscored.

"It is a pleasing fact that in the past several years we have been reporting achievements in the agrarian sector which is on the rise," Medvedev noted, adding that such achievements have been made possible thanks to import substitution measures and investments in the farming sector in the past ten years.

"Unlike other sectors, our agrarians have managed to find their bearings in conditions of restrictions [Western sanctions] swiftly and are simply trying to take vacated niches," he said, adding that farmers "are constantly asking what the situation will be after our restrictive measures are over."

"Everything will come to an end sooner or later, so we must think already now about how to support the farming sector in future," the Russian prime minister stressed.